The Acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Sam Guobadia in this interview with the Communications and Brand Strategy Unit (CBSU) gives a rundown of the University’s developmental strides, major goals for 2019, and how it would continue to demonstrate capacity in research and learning.

Excerpts:

What are the developmental strides for 2018?

The developmental strides between now and the end of the year are in 2 areas-Physical and Program Developments: It is imperative to speed up some physical developments with respect to the completion of some staff housing units, temporary sports facilities, construction of a student centre and additional intra-campus network of roads for easy movement of staff and students since many Faculties will be moved to the Legacy Campus in February, 2019. We are also currently engaged in laying the groundwork for the establishment of a College of Medicine, Nursing and Medical lab Sciences. We are expecting the NUC teams to come and resource verify these programs between now and January 2019.

As an institution, what are we going to do differently in 2019?

What we are going to do differently in 2019, as an institution, is to fully develop a number of pillars upon which our repackaged product will be based. Repackaged product, I mean Academic Excellence with Godliness. We have started to develop and retool our Academic Culture, Spiritual Culture, Leadership culture, and Entrepreneurship culture. For the last two, plans are underway to set up a new Leadership Unit in the University called Idahosa Leadership Center, where our students will be trained on leadership skills. A friend of the University has promised to build us an Enterprise (entrepreneurial) Development Center which will become the University’s business hub and other business incubation activities. By the end of 2019 God willing, many of these activities would have started to yield positive results. Our ultimate goal is to be ahead of the competition in the shortest possible time, and our brand becoming more attractive to subscribers.

What are the Major goals for 2019?

Apart from the establishment of the MBBS, Nursing and Medical Lab Science programs, the issue of working relationships will be a major focus of the management team. We are seeking a more effective and closer working relationship between staff and students; making the students feel more at home when they leave home to come to our University. Above all, we plan to develop more hostel space as we move more Faculties to the Legacy Campus by resumption date for the 2019/2020 Academic Session. The more we populate the Legacy Campus, the more we can rebrand and become more competitive.

What Mechanism has been put in place to make BIU World Class?

Simply put, we are planning to become world-Class by doing the little things excellently well. I have always stated that we don’t have the deep pockets of some other universities but I have a strong belief that we can be small and world-class. It is for this reason that the President has also talked about relentless excellence.

To Foster unity, commitment and togetherness, is there a future plan to hold an annual award/gala night to reward dedication and diligence?

This is actually a good idea. We need to find ways to reward excellence among staff and students. Recognition is a powerful tool leaders can use to extract more positive results from people. I will put a team together to work out the modality of doing something like this periodically. Thank you.